Former Rockies general manager Bob Gebhard at Coors feild in 1997. (Brian Brainerd, The Denver Post)

TUCSON — If you’re a longtime Rockies fan, I don’t have to tell you who Bob Gebhard is. But you may not have heard that Gebhard — Geb, to everyone in the game — suffered a heart attack Wednesday in Tucson.

If you don’t know Geb, he was the Rockies’ first GM, the man who did the heavy lifting in the early days of the franchise, back before the humidor, when sustaining quality starting pitching was a mission impossible.

You know the waterfall that erupts at Coors Field after every Rockies home run? They call it Geb’s Geyser because it was his baby. The hand-operated scoreboard? Geb’s idea.

I could go on and on about Geb’s impact on the Rockies, back then and still today. But I’d rather just leave you with this: He’s one of my favorite guys in baseball for more reasons than I can count. I was the Rockies’ original beat man for The Post, and he made a tough job fun.

These days, he’s a special assistant to Diamondbacks general manager Josh Byrnes. Word Thursday was that he was resting in a Tucson hospital.

Patrick, a third-generation Colorado native, is back for his second stint covering the Rockies. He first covered the team from 2005-2009, helping chronicle “Rocktober” in 2007 and also following the team’s playoff run in 2009.

Nick Groke has worked at The Denver Post since 1997, as a sports reporter, city reporter, entertainment writer and digital editor and producer, among other newsroom posts. He also writes regularly about boxing, soccer, MMA and NASCAR.